Denver Post: “A state court ruling in a legal dispute between a medical-marijuana grower and a dispensary has laid bare an argument that could be the undoing of Colorado’s medical-marijuana system. Grower Quincy Haeberle sued Blue Sky Care Connection and its manager, Laura Lowden, after saying he delivered $40,000 worth of marijuana to the business and wasn’t paid. . . . But, in an order issued this month, Arapahoe County District Court Judge Charles Pratt found in favor of the dispensary. Because all marijuana sales are illegal under federal law, Pratt reasoned that the contract between grower and dispensary was void — in line with longstanding legal precedent that contracts concerning illegal activities are invalid.”
The judge made the following statement in his order:
“(A)ny state authorization to engage in the manufacture, distribution or possession of marijuana creates an obstacle to full execution of federal law. Therefore, Colorado’s marijuana laws are preempted by federal marijuana law.”
Read “Arizona Attorney General’s Opinion Kinda Corrects Arizona Governor & Concludes Arizona’s Medical Marijuana Act is Partially Preempted by Federal Law” which contains the following quote from a legal opinion issued by Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne”
“Because of federal prohibitions, those AMMA provisions and related rules that authorize any cultivating, selling, and dispensing of marijuana are preempted.”
